"The government has issued about 20 lakh free laptops and floated tenders to issue another 11 lakh laptops for the years 2014-15, 2015-16," state Information Technology Minister N Subramanian said at the valedictory session of CONNECT 2014, organised by CII.

The scheme is targeted at school and college students in the state.

Referring to the 14 urban common e-service centres that would offer payment services under one roof, he said government planned to expand this service by opening another 2,000 centres in the state.

Later talking to reporters, IT Department Principal Secretary, T K Ramachandran said the government has just issued Government Orders for the 'Startup Warehouse' scheme, an initiative with Nasscom.

Its objective was to provide an "ecosystem" to startup companies. The startup warehouse is being proposed with Nasscom. The first warehouse would come up in TIDEL Park, Chennai, with a seating capacity for 100 persons, he said.

"It will be further expanded to other Tier II and III cities", he added.